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Monday, April 20, 2009

DJ Steve Aoki in the Sahara (aka Dance tent). The biggest of the tents and always a good time.House was pretty dominant this year; awesome as it's which is my favorite.

Saturday afternoon, main stage and Do Lab in the background. There were like 60,000 people at the festival, it's HUGE.

Main stage during sunset with My Bloody Valentine floating through the fields. They blew me away, I was pleasantly surprised as I didn't really know them before.

Bamboo Starscraper at night. It's a music and art festival, so there are a number of art displays also. This one is over 90 ft tall, bamboo woven together with a huge flame on top, from the top it's a six-pointed star.

The Do Lab sign...the Do Lab is a club transported into the middle of Empire Polo Field. There's a DJ in there all day and night, shade and water misters to cool people down. An awesome place.

The inside of the Do Lab. The DJ set up is in the background and speakers are all over, the place is seriously always bumping.

Throbbing Gristle...British industrial pioneers...freaky weird and even a little scary but honestly an awesome show. First show where literally the sound waves were so powerful I was pushed backwards at points, like a sonic boom. No worries, I had ear plugs in. By the way that's a dude.

A sculpture art display called the Serpent Mother, it's a snake that is coiled around an egg which hatches at night. Very cool, and huge as you can see.

The head raises up and down and closes/hisses. The egg is visible at the bottom right.

Oh yeah, did I mention flames ascend up and down her spine, exploding up rhythmically and dropping from the fangs; also when the egg opens flames explode up. Amazing pyrotechnics.

Cauac Twins. Tesla coils, sometimes the lightning would connect. The sounds and visual aesthetics where amazing. These are the largest twin Tesla Coils in the world. So crazy to think when Nikola Tesla was alive he would travel with these coils and sit in the middle of them; these are bolts of electricity!

The Doo Lab basked in the red spotlights.

Melissa and I on Sunday during Yeah Yeah Yeahs! Even after 3 days of camping, like 4 hours of sleep, and 12 hours of dancing I was still super energized and pumped to see them. I love them, they put on a great show.Yeah Yeah Yeahs stage set-up. We pushed ourselves up pretty close after this.

Here was our view for most of the show...this isn't even zoomed. It was awesome. Karen O...amazing, glittery. She's half polish half Korean.

Lykke Li, a new find for me. Great, sweedish indie and techno. One of my favorite parts of Coachella is finding new groups and being surprised.

Steven and Melissa

Okay this is the Lucent Dossier Circus performance. Amazing, they are so good and incredibly entertainig. I saw them last year too, and love them more everytime I see them.

Described as " a mystical universe where majestic rituals are performed in extraordinary apocalyptic funk and mod regalia."

It was so incredible how she could manipulate her body and twist holding herself up. Awesome strength.

It was a dancing/singing show. Everyone in character. That guy in the background has nothing holding him to that cloth; he climbed and twisted with no ropes or nets, just him.

I love this one...she was an amazing singer and I love how it looks like the guy in back is fighting the black cloth, lost in it.

This guy is so ripped and very talented. There are dancers coming out in the background, you can only see there legs.

All their music was live, she was great too; everyone was. The band is in the background.

Shimmy Shimmy Shimmy!

They used a lot of water, the stage is all a mini-pool, and they kicked and sprayed and threw water on the crowd, which was awesome as it was so HOT.

Check them out if you ever get the chance in LA, Lucent Dossier. They are great.

Sunday afternoon...too much party...crash. She is completey passed out. This is during Vivian Girls - they put on a great show and there music rocks - it was definitely very loud, and Melissa just passed out, haha.

Yoga in the Mojave tent. Fun people everywhere.

Melissa and Robby listening to No Age.

Rimski's Bicycle Piano from the UK. This guy Rimski plays the piano as he cycles around the field, he was very good. His singer, Violet, cycled around with him on one of those old bicycles that have a large front wheel and small back wheel.

Oh, and he was also an acrobat, doing tricks on the piano, which isn't super stable, it's on two wheels like a cart. He would rock it and you could see how easily in might tip.

Melissa making friends. My guess is these guys spent a lot of time in the dance (Saraha) tent - they had fluorescent blinking lights all over. You met a lot of fun and crazy or just plain crazy people in the Sahara.

The festy doors open at 11 am, but it gets blistering hot at like 6 am. So when we come out of our sleep comas we spent the mornings at Walmart or some fast food joint anywhere with air condition.

(We camped in Coachella camp grounds with thousands of other festival goers and music is thumping in the DOME - another transported club, see picture two posts ago - until like 3 am, people party all night long, so when you finally do fall asleep it's like death when you wake up not because you're rested but because it is soooo hot...i'd imagine it feels the same as a massive hangover complete with both headache and light sensitivity...no regrets though it was an awesome, complete experience)

Leonard Cohen. The Outdoor Theatre. This was amazing, there was only one person in front of me, we where so close. Honestly, he is such a sexy old man with his deep voice. One of my favorites of the weekend.

Robby and me in the Sahara tent. Dance Dance Dance.

Art exhibit called "THE HAND OF MAN." An enormous, incredibly powerful steal human hand that festival goers control with there own hand. Peopl put on an ergonomically accurate "glove" so when you move your hand the steal hand moves, alowing you to crush cars.

Lifting a car to drop it from like 20 feet.

More festival art...this one called the Sphae, 25 feet tall and it illuminates. The Do Lab in the background and Outdoor theatre behind that.

La Familia Divina-Shrine. An exhibit dedicated to self expression created solely out of re-used materials, trash and objects found over 20 years.

An incredible display called the Quad Cubatron. A huge matrix of ping-pong balls and 5760 LED lights, which displays 3D graphics and light.

More of the Quad Cubatron.

This is a super long exposure shot of the part of a light show with huge spotlights. So if you're tired you can lay down and look up at the lights in the sky. The place is visually pleasing from every angle.